First social travel platform to sort & share friends’ future plans with business subscribers

New York, January 27, 2017: WishPoints, announced the Android app launch in Google Play, iOS version update in the AppStore and availability of the business promo platform. As the first predictive, social travel app designed as a game, WishPoints turns the table on travel planning. Its app is where customers rally the demand amongst friends for unique travel. The more friends who join WishPoints as linked friends, the more demands for travel services are generated and the more interesting and more affordable travel will be. This upstream predictive channel to deliver promotions to target customers on the WishPoints business platform makes it advantageous for travel service providers to compete in a crowded travel booking and search space.

WishPoints makes friends’ travel wishes searchable

Some people don’t travel because they don’t know who else wants to go where they want to go and what to do there. Because of this challenge, these travelers’ social network has the greatest influence on where they ultimately decide to plan travel. Previously, no central tool exists for tracking or searching travel conversations amongst friends. For example, there is no easy way to answer the question, “Which one of my friends wants to go to Cuba or Iceland too? What did the ones that went before think about it?” Ultimately, if friends do not agree on a destination and share similar reasons for going, the trip is not planned. Over 25% of group trips do not proceed because of this challenge. Until now, there were no apps or websites that show you where your friends wish to go next and make it searchable.

WishPoints solves the problem of organizing shared future travel interests amongst friends and of capturing what other friends have done or suggested when they went. The friendly interface of the app aggregates and curates travel wishes & tips amongst friends deciding on their next trip. Its mobile app reveals friends’ travel intents and is the first to reward trust & influence within a social network. Points are rewarded without bias for discoveries of unique experiences, hidden gems & local faves with friends.

Since the iOS version of WishPoints has launched in October 2016, over 300,000 wishes to travel across 200 countries and over 1000 unique experiences, hidden gems, and local favorites have been registered.

“There are so many sites that offer tips, but this is from friends. People want to post their trips on Facebook, but it’s not searchable. It’s impossible to find. So there’s definitely a need for this. As long as you get the word out there and differentiate it from Facebook and all the other blogging networks, it will have a great shot.” said Entrepreneur.com News Director Stephen Bronner in a featured interview of WishPoints CEO Grace Lee at the Propeller Fest in 2016 (“This Website Wants to Make Planning Your Next Trip Quick and Painless” https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/280218).

Businesses can partner with WishPoints as an ambassador, subscriber, or sponsor. The influencer platform provides a way for businesses subscribers to promote services to target, customize & influence travelers BEFORE they start searching and booking. A/B Testing is easier with WishPoints. Sponsor can rewards for trusted influencers who share discoveries. Ambassadors like tourism boards, bloggers, and digital nomads can be rewarded for promoting local businesses. This earlier, predictive influence can provide the competitive advantage for smart businesses in the crowded travel booking landscape.

Travel Sponsors are eager to partner with WishPoints because this is the first app that reveals where friends intend to travel. WingzUp, as one of the early corporate sponsors of WishPoints, had recognized its predictive value. Chief Executive Officer of WingzUp Alan Ashkenazie said, “We knew right away that we wanted to partner with WishPoints. By knowing the places where travelers are planning to go, WingzUp can offer promotions for helicopter flights or charter flights, anytime, anywhere to its target customers before they start searching for flights.” WingzUp is currently offering free on-demand reward helicopter rides for WishPoints travel influencers and discounts for their family and friends. WishPoints was also recently selected as one of the Finalists at the Salesforce Small-Medium-sized Business Basecamp Trailblazer pitch competition in December 2016.

About WishPoints:

Headquartered in New York, NY, WishPoints, Inc offers the first social travel platform to share friends’ travel wishes and make them accessible to businesses. WishPoints aims to make travel planning easier amongst friends and family and to promote businesses that provide local or unique experiences around the world. WishPoints app can be found in the Apple Appstore and Google Play store. For more information, go to www.wishpoints.com. Sign up at www.wishpointsbiz.com to promote your services as a WishPoints business partner and www.wishpointsapp.com/ambassadors to be a sponsored ambassador.

About Grace Lee:

WishPoints was founded and designed by Grace Lee whose passion is encouraging people travel more. When she was growing up, her family could not afford to travel. When her family would spend entire lives without having seen the world outside of their hometown, she was motivated to discover and show them what else is out there. When she graduated college, her first job took her to >42 states and she racked up over 500,000 miles. She chose her next jobs as global head in multi-national corporations to enable travel to >85 countries regularly for business monthly or for free using points for flights or hotels for the last 20+ years. Her corporate roles entailed designing cutting-edge enterprise technology solutions to integrate big data from multiple sources into searchable analytics. The goal was to make this information easily accessible by executives, users, and regulators.

As Grace traveled, she would post pics of her trips on social media and tell her friends about discoveries from her trip that most websites or tour books don’t highlight. Because she’s been off-the-beaten path to places like Cuba, Jordan, South Africa, and Turkey long before her friends have gone, they would be inspired to go, trust that it was safe and fun to go after she went, and often seek her advice when planning their travels. Grace would spend hours compiling her experiences and recommendations for itineraries customized to each friend’s travel style. Often, her friends would not be able to easily keep track of all these recommendations from different friends in different formats (eg, live conversations, emails, chats, text). Her friends would often wished they knew she was going so that they could have joined her. So she decided to make her travel wishes and recommendations searchable through WishPoints. She wants to help more people travel more… experience the unique around the world… for free.